China's "Peaceful Rise" to Great-Power Status

By Zheng Bijian
FROM OUR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 ISSUE

China's rapid development has attracted worldwide attention in recent years. The implications
of various aspects of China's rise, from its expanding influence and military muscle to its growing
demand for energy supplies, are being heatedly debated in the international community as well as
within China. Correctly understanding China's achievements and its path toward greater development is
thus crucial.
Since starting to open up and reform its economy in 1978, China has averaged 9.4 percent annual GDP
growth, one of the highest growth rates in the world. In 1978, it accounted for less than one percent of
the world economy, and its total foreign trade was worth $20.6 billion. Today, it accounts for four
percent of the world economy and has foreign trade worth $851 billion -- the third-largest national total
in the world. China has also attracted hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment and more
than a trillion dollars of domestic nonpublic investment. A dozen years ago, China barely had mobile
telecommunications services. Now it claims more than 300 million mobile-phone subscribers, more than
any other nation. As of June 2004, nearly 100 million people there had access to the Internet.
Indeed, China has achieved the goal it set for itself in 1978: it has significantly improved the well-being
of its people, although its development has often been narrow and uneven. The last 27 years of reform
and growth have also shown the world the magnitude of China's labor force, creativity, and purchasing
power; its commitment to development; and its degree of national cohesion. Once all of its potential is
mobilized, its contribution to the world as an engine of growth will be unprecedented.
One should not, however, lose sight of the other side of the coin. Economic growth alone does not
provide a full picture of a country's development. China has a population of 1.3 billion. Any small
difficulty in its economic or social development, spread over this vast group, could become a huge
problem. And China's population has not yet peaked; it is not projected to decline until it reaches 1.5
billion in 2030. Moreover, China's economy is still just one-seventh the size of the United States' and
one-third the size of Japan's. In per capita terms, China remains a low-income developing country,
ranked roughly 100th in the world. Its impact on the world economy is still limited.
For the next few decades, the Chinese nation will be preoccupied with securing a more
comfortable and decent life for its people. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held in 1978, the Chinese leadership has concentrated on
economic development. Through its achievements so far, China has blazed a new strategic path that
suits its national conditions while conforming to the tides of history. This path toward modernization
can be called "the development path to a peaceful rise." Some emerging powers in modern history have
plundered other countries' resources through invasion, colonization, expansion, or even large-scale wars
of aggression. China's emergence thus far has been driven by capital, technology, and resources
acquired through peaceful means.
The most significant strategic choice the Chinese have made was to embrace economic
globalization rather than detach themselves from it. In the late 1970s, when the new technological
revolution and a new wave of economic globalization were unfolding with great momentum, Beijing

grasped the trend and reversed the erroneous practices of the Cultural Revolution. On the basis of the
judgment that China's development would depend on its place in an open world, Deng Xiaoping and
other Chinese leaders decided to seize the historic opportunity and shift the focus of their work to
economic development. They carried out reforms meant to open up and foster domestic markets and
tap into international ones. They implemented the household contracting system in rural areas and
opened up 14 coastal cities, thus ushering in a period of economic takeoff.
In the 1990s, China once again confronted a strategic choice, due to the Asian financial crisis and the
subsequent struggle between the forces for and against globalization. China's decision to participate in
economic globalization was facing a serious challenge. But by carefully weighing the advantages and
disadvantages of economic openness and drawing lessons from recent history, Beijing decided to open
up China even more, by joining the World Trade Organization and deepening economic reform at home.
China has based its modernization process mainly on its domestic resources. It has relied on ideological
and institutional innovations and on industrial restructuring. By exploring the growing domestic market
and transferring the huge personal savings of its citizens into investment, China has infused its economy
with new momentum. Its citizens' capacities are being upgraded and its technological progress
expedited. Even while attempting to learn from and absorb useful products from other societies,
including those of the advanced capitalist countries, China has maintained its independence and selfreliance.
In pursuing the goal of rising in peace, the Chinese leadership has strived for improving China's
relations with all the nations of the world. Despite the ups and downs in U.S.-Chinese relations over the
years, as well as other dramatic changes in international politics, such as the collapse of the Soviet
Union, Beijing has stuck to the belief that there are more opportunities than challenges for China in
todays international environment.
According to China's strategic plans, it will take another 45 years -- until 2050 -- before it can be
called a modernized, medium-level developed country. China will face three big challenges before it gets
there. As described above, China's shortage of resources poses the first problem. The second is
environmental: pollution, waste, and a low rate of recycling together present a major obstacle to
sustainable development. The third is a lack of coordination between economic and social development.
This last challenge is reflected in a series of tensions Beijing must confront: between high GDP growth
and social progress, between upgrading technology and increasing job opportunities, between keeping
development momentum in the coastal areas and speeding up development in the interior, between
fostering urbanization and nurturing agricultural areas, between narrowing the gap between the rich
and the poor and maintaining economic vitality and efficiency, between attracting more foreign
investment and enhancing the competitiveness of indigenous enterprises, between deepening reform
and preserving social stability, between opening domestic markets and solidifying independence,
between promoting market-oriented competition and taking care of disadvantaged people. To cope
with these dilemmas successfully, a number of well-coordinated policies are needed to foster
development
that
is
both
faster
and
more
balanced.

The policies the Chinese government has been carrying out, and will continue to carry out, in the
face of these three great challenges can be summarized as three grand strategies -- or "three
transcendences."The first strategy is to transcend the old model of industrialization and to advance a
new one. The old industrialization was characterized by rivalry for resources in bloody wars and by high
investment, high consumption of energy, and high pollution. Were China to follow this path, it would
harm both others and itself. China is instead determined to forge a new path of industrialization based
on technology, economic efficiency, low consumption of natural resources relative to the size of its
population, low environmental pollution, and the optimal allocation of human resources. The Chinese
government is trying to find new ways to reduce the percentage of the country's imported energy
sources and to rely more on China's own. The objective is to build a "society of thrift."
The second strategy is to transcend the traditional ways for great powers to emerge, as well as
the Cold War mentality that defined international relations along ideological lines. China will not follow
the path of Germany leading up to World War I or those of Germany and Japan leading up to World War
II, when these countries violently plundered resources and pursued hegemony. Neither will China follow
the path of the great powers vying for global domination during the Cold War. Instead, China will
transcend ideological differences to strive for peace, development, and cooperation with all countries of
the world.
The third strategy is to transcend outdated modes of social control and to construct a
harmonious socialist society. The functions of the Chinese government have been gradually
transformed, with self-governance supplementing state administration. China is strengthening its
democratic institutions and the rule of law and trying to build a stable society based on a spiritual
civilization. A great number of ideological and moral-education programs have been launched.
Several dynamic forces are noticeable in the carrying out of the three strategies. For example, there are
numerous clusters of vigorously developing cities in the coastal areas of eastern and southern China,
and similar clusters are emerging in the central and western regions. They constitute the main engines
of growth, are the major manufacturing and trading centers, and absorb surplus rural labor. They also
have high productivity, advanced culture, and accumulated international experience that the rest of
China can emulate and learn from. The expansion of China's middle-income strata and the growing need
for
international
markets
come
mainly
from
these
regions.
China's surplus of rural workers, who have strong aspirations to escape poverty, is another force
that is pushing Chinese society into industrial civilization. About ten million rural Chinese migrate to
urban areas each year in an orderly and protected way. They both provide Chinese cities with new
productivity and new markets and help end the backwardness of rural areas. Innovations in science and
technology and culture are also driving China toward modernization and prosperity in the twenty-first
century.
The Chinese government has set up targets for development for the next 50 years. This period is
divided into three stages. In the first stage -- 2000 to 2010 -- total GDP is to be doubled. In the second
stage, ending in 2020, total GDP is to be doubled again, at which point China's per capita GDP is
expected to reach $3,000. In the third, from 2020 to 2050, China will continue to advance until it
becomes a prosperous, democratic, and civilized socialist country. By that time, China will have shaken
off underdevelopment and will be on a par with the middle rung of advanced nations. It can then claim
to
have
succeeded
in
achieving
a
"peaceful
rise."
China's peaceful rise will further open its economy so that its population can serve as a growing market
for the rest of the world, thus providing increased opportunities for -- rather than posing a threat to --

the international community. A few figures illustrate China's current contribution to global trade: in
2004, China's imports from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations increased by 33.1
percent, from Japan by 27.3 percent, from India by 80 percent, from the European Union by 28 percent,
and
from
the
United
States
by
31.9
percent.
China is not the only power that seeks a peaceful rise. China's economic integration into East
Asia has contributed to the shaping of an East Asian community that may rise in peace as a whole. And it
would not be in China's interest to exclude the United States from the process. In fact, Beijing wants
Washington to play a positive role in the region's security as well as economic affairs. The beginning of
the twenty-first century is seeing a number of countries rising through different means, while following
different models, and at different paces. At the same time, the developed countries are further
developing
themselves.
This
is
a
trend
to
be
welcomed.
China does not seek hegemony or predominance in world affairs. It advocates a new international
political and economic order, one that can be achieved through incremental reforms and the
democratization of international relations. China's development depends on world peace -- a peace that
its development will in turn reinforce.

1. Biography of the author ( Zheng Bijian)

Zheng Bijian, male, Han nationality, is a native of Fushun, Sichuan Province. He was born in 1932 and
joined the CPC in 1952. He completed postgraduate studies in political economics at Peoples University
of China in 1954.
Zheng has conducted Party-oriented research for the state government, the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, and the Party. He was deputy chief for the theory group of Mao Zedong Works editing
committee at the CPC Central Committee in the late 1970s. He was later deputy director-general of the
international affairs research center at the State Council in the late 1970s. In 1988, he served a four year
stint as the vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He concurrently worked as the
director for the research institute for Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought at the academy.
Following his academy positions, Zheng became deputy head of the publicity department at the CPC
Central Committee. He is executive vice-president of the Party school of the CPC Central Committee.
2. Literacy piece
This literary piece is an essay writing written from the authors point of view in an interpretative
form about an issue entitled Chinas Peaceful Rise to Great-Power Status.
3. Summary
Chinas dramatic economic reform from 1978 has n averaged 9.4 percent annual GDP growth,
one of the highest growth rates in the world. In 1978, it accounted for less than one percent of the
world economy, and its total foreign trade was worth $20.6 billion. Today, it accounts for four percent of
the world economy and has foreign trade worth $851 billion -- the third-largest national total in the
world. China has also attracted hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment and more than a
trillion dollars of domestic nonpublic investment. When it comes to the development of
communications, China barely had mobile telecommunications services. Now it claims more than 300
million mobile-phone subscribers, more than any other nation. As of June 2004, nearly 100 million
people there had access to the Internet. In addition with regards to the increase of population, China
has a population of 1.3 billion. Any small difficulty in its economic or social development, spread over
this vast group, could become a huge problem. And China's population has not yet peaked; it is not
projected to decline until it reaches 1.5 billion in 2030.

4. Explanation
Criticisms (physical aspect, style in writing, how did the author deliver the piece)
Expanding influence
and military muscle
Capital, Technology
and Resources
Advancing
Industrialization

GDP growth
9.4% annually
Affiliation in World
Trade Organization
MOTIVATIONAL
FACTORS OF
DEVELOPMENT

CHINAS GREAT
POWER STATUS

FIGURE 1 LITERARY FRAMEWORK

Figure 1 clearly shows the factors that affect Chinas economic development to be in a great power
status of the region and of the world. In return, when China is already on the peak of its goals and
achievements, it will nourish and enhance decisively the said factors in a reciprocal process.
Theme: Getting the Facts Right of Chinas Development and Progress
This essay is clearly stating the facts, the actual reality, of the Chinas rise to great power status
economically. The authors perception is precisely congruent to the real fact as what China today
considered as the second largest economy of the world. Chinas economic status today is really
imminent and inevitable because of Chinese intelligent adventure to the world trade and commerce.
Chinas persistency and determination to overcome, as learned from history, resulted into dramatic
growth of their economic and sustainable development.
Chinas peaceful rise, as becoming the worlds largest economy, should be not understood as a
threat to regional stability and order because they are just doing business with good intentions for the
benefits of the world in general, and in order to sustain the 1.3 billion population and more for survival.
Their economic prosperity is a product of creativity and logical thinking towards achieving desired goal.
Furthermore, the author positively emphasizes the persistency of the Chinese people to cope up
from being the victim of brutal colonization and invasion. He, however, critically rationalize that any

attempt to disrupt the economic development will result to a serious problem of subsistence scarcity of
the rapidly increasing population. In addition, the author constructively criticizes the peaceful rise of
china as all other nations is also in line with the same objective.
5. Literary approach
This literary piece is purely historical approach. The author explicitly explains the historical flow
of economic reform and development of China from 1978 as observed through the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) Growth annually. In line with the economic development and growth, there were also
built-in characteristics: such as population explosion, movement of technological development in
communications and engine of growth.